London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

A car bomb has exploded outside the French embassy in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, security officials have said.

The explosives-laden vehicle was detonated just outside the embassy building in Tripoli's upmarked al-Andalus neighbourhood.

The blast wounded two French guards and set off a fire at the embassy entrance which engulfed some of the offices inside, the officials said.

Two cars parked outside also caught fire and two other nearby buildings were also damaged, they said.

Firefighters rushed to the scene.

The officials said the motive for the attack - the first such assault on an embassy in the Libyan capital - was not immediately clear.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the bombing, calling it an "abhorrent act".

In a statement, he said that the foreign ministry was "in liaison with the Libyan authorities" and that France will "do everything it can to shed light on the circumstances of this abhorrent act and to quickly identify the perpetrators".

Mr Fabius also sent a message of solidarity and sympathy to the two injured French citizens, with a wish that that they recover soon.

The Libyan officials said that one of the wounded guards suffered severe injuries while the other was only slightly hurt, adding that an investigation was under way.

Two years after the country's civil war, Libya is struggling to maintain security, build a unified army and rein in militias, which include rebels who fought to oust the country's long-time dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Last September, militants attacked the US diplomatic mission in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.